Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I love granola bars, but they’re expensive and make me feel
bad for buying all that packaging. I
started looking up recipes, and found a few that sounded delicious. This round I’m making Raspberry Granola Bars
from a recipe I got from Foodandwine.com.

I found a jar of raspberry jam my mom made that I knew would
be tasty for this, so that went in and reduced my cost. I substituted almonds for pecans both because
I don’t care for pecans that much, and I had exactly a cup left over from
making granola.

Preheat oven to 350, and butter an 8x8 pan. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add melted butter, stir till thoroughly
combined. Put 2/3 of the mixture into
the pan and pat it down so it’s flat and even.
Add the preserves, spread out evenly.
Add the remaining oat mixture, pat it out evenly over the preserves (the
original recipe says to sprinkle it on).
Bake for 45 minutes, rotating once half way through. Cool in the pan for 3 hours, then cut into
squares.

With the butter added. Doesn't that look delicious?

Thanks Mom!

Well, after making my house smell like burnt sugar, I now
understand why they say to sprinkle the top granola. Since the preserves had no room to bubble, it
all went to the edges and bubbled onto the sides of the pan and burned on. Once I cut them, I realized how thick they
are. Despite being named “Back to
School Raspberry Granola Bars”, they’re
more like an oatmeal square. An
incredibly dense and delicious oatmeal square.
I don’t know that I would try to replace my granola bars with this, at
least not without some tweaking- bake in a 9x13 so they’re much thinner and
crunchier – but they are insanely good!

(I recently went back to the site and read a description that I don't think was there when I originally got the recipe. It clearly shows it being a crumbly soft square, rather than an actually granola bar.)

Note the burned jam around the edge. Sprinkle, don't pat!

Awesome raspberry goodness.

Try It

$3.82 for 16
squares, or $.24 per square.

Buy It

$2.50 for 6
Nature Valley Fruit and Nut bars, or $.42
per bar.

Verdict

First of all, if I had to buy the preserves it would have
added 1.59 to my cost, or $.10 per square.
Even with that cost it’s cheaper than store bought. They were really good- a small chunk of this in Spencer's lunch made his day. I
would Try It, but it won’t always
take the place of the flavor of a store bought granola bar. Be on the lookout for future granola bar tests coming your way...

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

I think this will be the first of a series of miscellaneous
tips that don’t warrant a post of their own, but are worth sharing all the
same. Hope you find them helpful!

Shower curtain fix

My husband bought our shower curtain liner. It’s cloth, which is great, but for whatever
reason, it always blew around while I was in the shower and stuck to my leg and
made me consider tearing it down and stomping on it. One day while I was in Joann Fabric, I
happened upon weighted drapery tape. It’s
little weights, woven into a rope, sold by the foot. It
was the turning point in my relationship with our shower.

Using my seam ripper, I ripped open the hem of the curtain
and threaded the weight all the way down the bottom edge of the curtain (ever
put the string back in a hoody? You put
a safety pin on the end of the string, then inch the cloth over the pin until
it’s all the way through). I ripped the
hem at the other end to get my safety pin back, then hand sewed the seams back
together. Ahhh. A
year later it’s still holding up just fine, even after machine washings.

Deodorant

My Plastic Free Life has a whole page of tips for using less
plastic. My favorite is switching from
deodorant to plain old baking soda. I
find it works best right out of the shower because of the moisture on my
skin. I keep a ramekin of baking soda on
my bathroom sink. Using an old blush
brush, I just dab it in my armpits. It
works better than most natural deodorants that I’ve tried (Kiss My Face, Tom’s of Maine, Crystal), it’s dirt cheap, and aluminum free!

Household Cleaner

I used to buy Green Works or Seventh Generation cleaners,
but these days I just use a mixture of equal parts vinegar and water. It lasts a while in the spray bottle, is also dirt cheap, has no
fake smell, cleans well, and leaves glass sparkling. I use it in the bathroom, on tile, on the kitchen sink and counters, windows, and to clean up after any "accidents" my kid in potty training makes. I keep it in my old Green Works bottle.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Oops! I got so wrapped up doing taxes I forgot to post this yesterday!

I ran out of Grey Poupon two weeks ago. It was very sad, but it did add the needed
zip to my coleslaw. Once the jar was
empty, I thought I might as well look up how it’s made, instead of buying a new
jar. To my disappointment, it’s a two
week process. On the up side, I had to
go shopping that day, anyway, so while I was out I picked up bulk ground
mustard, and I was ready to go. The recipe came from Food.com.

Bring the wine, onion, and garlic to a boil in a small
saucepan, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Allow the mixture to cool, then discard
solids. Return wine liquid to the
saucepan and stir in the mustard until smooth.
Add remaining ingredients and return to heat just until thickened. Put your mustard in a jar, and allow it to
cool overnight on the counter. In the
morning, put you mustard in the fridge and wait two weeks.

Looks like mustard...

Finished mustard, ready to go.

So after the long wait, was it worth it? I don’t know.
It had quite a kick, that’s for sure!
It was thicker than Grey Poupon, and looked unimpressive, but the flavor
was good. I would love it on a turkey sandwich.

Try It

$7.05 for 16oz,
or $.44/oz

Buy It

$3.35 for the 8oz
glass jar, or $.42/oz

Verdict

I used a $5 bottle of wine because we already had it, but I’m
sure there is cheaper wine out there. In
my case, it didn’t come out cheaper, and the flavor wasn’t so over the top
amazing that it would be worth it anyway.
It’s not how I saw this going, but I have to say Buy It. It’s not hard, just not
worth it.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

What with a baby coming in May, and the upcoming loss of my income due to said baby at the end of this month, I’m trying to train myself to be more frugal. One of the things I read time and time again on some of the frugal blogs I follow is that it’s great how being thrifty can lead to being more creative. I wholeheartedly agree!

As I’ve mentioned, Spencer started preschool last month, and with that comes things like Valentine’s Day parties complete with card exchange for 12 kids. I decided to make them this year out of things I could find around the house. What I found was some ridiculous felt left over from Christmas, and that’s about it. Sooo…

You Will Need

Some scrap paper (free)

1 12x8 sheet of red felt ($.29)

2 12x8 sheets white felt ($.29 per sheet, $.29 x 2 sheets = $.58)

1 marker (free)

1 ruler (free)

1 pair scissors (free)

1 large cereal box (free)

Glue (free)

Confession- I use most of my kid's "artwork" as scrap

On your scrap paper draw a heart that is smaller than 4”wide and 3 ¾” tall. Cut it out. Using your heart as a stencil, trace 12 hearts onto the red felt (on the back side if there is one so the lines don’t show). Cut out your hearts and set aside. On your white felt, cut out 12 rectangles measuring 4” wide and 3 ¾” tall. Set aside. Cut rectangles of the same size out of the cereal box. Glue the hearts (marker side down) to the white felt. Glue the white felt (marker side down) to the outside of the cereal box. Allow the glue to dry pressed under a heavy book. When the glue has dried, write a message on the brown paper side. Done.

I bought the snake skin felt because shockingly, they were out of red felt at Christmas.

They’re not perfect, but they’re cute. I did mention that they’re for the 4 and under set, right? Now that the cards are ready, I’ll let Spencer draw on the brown side to leave his mark. Were I to do it again, I’d see if I could find a less busy box, or maybe use a colored felt for the background because the Honey Bunches of Oats definitely shows through!

Happy Valentine's Day, kiddos!

Try It

$.87 for 12 Valentine’s Day cards. Per card, if I actually bought the felt instead of having it left over without a valid receipt in sight, they would have been $.07/card. As it stands, they were free (everything else is listed as free because it’s been around so long I don’t know where they came from- except the cereal box.)

Buy It

The price range seems to be $1 to $4 for 36. The ones we would have bought were $2.50 for 36 Toy Story cards with temporary tattoos (side rant: what is with temporary tattoos? Why is that cute?). Per card, they would have been $.07/card. But since I only needed 12, it would have actually cost me $.21/card.

Verdict

So depending on how you look at it, I either saved nothing, $.14/card, or $2.50. I see it as an easy craft project that took care of Valentine’s Day, and got me a little in the spirit. I’m a little bit of a V Day Scrooge at heart, not going to lie. Until Spencer is old enough to make or pay for his own, I’ll continue to Try It.

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About Me

My name is Laura, and I live in central Virginia. I'm an enthusiastic but untrained crafter and cook who likes to try new projects. If you have a project you'd like me to analyze, let me know! Leave a comment or email me at tryitorbuyit@gmail.com, and I'll see what I can do.